


Day Lily

by sundropsin



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, F/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-19
Updated: 2016-05-19
Packaged: 2018-06-09 08:19:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6898216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sundropsin/pseuds/sundropsin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot live without love.” ― Friedrich Max Müller</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day Lily

The first flowers Hinata gives Yachi are day lilies, star-shaped fire-colored smears, which brand a hopeful burn in her chest.

✿

Yachi Hitoka doesn’t walk into Hinata Shouyou’s life. She trips herself into it, her bag and art supplies and flustered self tangled up on the flower shop floor.

The flower-keeper, with aer orange lion’s hair pulled back into a small ponytail, sun freckled skin, and “Hinata Shouyou: ae/aer/aers” name tag pinned to aer green apron, doesn’t know what to think, but ae jumps into action - literally right over the service counter, even though ae could walk around it - and drops to aer knees, making sure that she’s okay, and Yachi sees the lukewarm watercolor red settling on her cheeks in the glass case behind Hinata.

She can’t move, can’t think, _oh god oh god oh ggg_ \- why did she have to trip like that? Is her dress still down? Yachi tugs at the scarf around her neck, half removing it, half tightening it. Did her chest pads slip? Or her bra? Clumsy, clumsy, clumsy. She curls in on herself, trying to make herself a smaller target. She didn’t trip _over_ aer, so, so _that_ was something, but, nonetheless! Nonetheless, why couldn’t she even walk right? That’s what her mother was always saying - _why can’t you just do it right?_ She feels sick, ready to rip off her clothes because -- what if her mother was watching? On a secret spy camera, or - or a robotic fly with two bodyguards outside the shop ready to apprehend Yachi for being such an embarrassment to her mother and, and -

“You alright?” Ae gently nudges her, passing her the watercolor set that’s fallen out of her bag. She’s slightly shaking and unable to move and Hinata really shouldn’t overwhelm her right now, but ae moves right into her business, helping Yachi with her things, and jumps straight into a conversation.

“What’s your name? I’m Shouyou!” Ae points at aer name tag, waiting for her to introduce herself.

“Yacchh -- i Hitoka!” She hiccups out, back straightening to attention, nervous laughter fettering her words. She stumbles over whether or not to mention _her_ pronouns because this is really the first time she’s tried anything like this, and she’s certainly nervous about how she’s coming off - and are her arms too hairy? She can feel every single strand against her cardigan, and her hands are definitely sweaty, but Hinata takes it all in stride.

“Well, Yacchan, don’t worry about it!! It’s the heat, I bet. A lot of people have been stumbling in here dizzy, but that could also be thanks to our flowers here. Pretty, right?” Hinata grins, the sun in aer smile too bright to look at, and Yachi turns instead to the rows of flowers, more hues than flower names she can list, encircling the shop.

“Are... Are these all yours? I mean, did you make all of these?”

Ae nods, launching off into a long-winded discussion about aer role model botanist and what flowers mean to aer and what flowers mean in general and aer favorite kinds of flowers (which compiles a long, long list) and Yachi loses herself in Hinata’s beloved indoor garden.

The arrangements overwhelm her, some of them symmetrical and others asymmetrical bouquets with interesting color splashes. They dizzy her into a different sense of overwhelming, one she feels like a larger part of - one that makes her feel less like a mistake and more like a part of a miracle. Any ordinary person would be impressed, and Yachi is _very_ impressed. But the crescendo-ing calm in her chest, like a spot of watercolor paint dipped in water, takes her away.

The many colored flowers reflect a warm light in the small flower shop, or maybe it’s the setting sun and gradient tinted windows. It’s like she’s been transported into a fairy’s garden, or maybe, she’s already in one! (And what if Hinata’s actually secretly a fairy? Ae has a cheeky smile, the fairy sort of smile, and ae’s not ... really tall.) She doesn’t know, no, she doesn’t know, but by now, Yachi has forgotten her embarrassment. She’s losing herself in the flowers’ magic song and not noticing the flower-keeper’s growing smile. She’s forgetting how her mom must be embarrassed of her and how even though it’s her birthday, her mother is spending it conducting business.

Yachi slowly stands, rising to the flowers’ lingering breaths lazily floating above the aisles as tall as Hinata. It’s nothing like the patented sakura or rose scents her mother wears to her corporate dinners, but something that feels a bit more like…

Something Yachi can let her roots grow in, away from old insecurities and inhibitions.

“So, were you looking for any flowers, Yacchan?” Hinata asks, half-hoping ae can delay her departure, now that she looks like she’s settled in and breathing better.

Yachi’s Adam’s apple bobs nervously because she _does_ want to stay, but - oh - she’s no good at improvising like this. She glances wildly around the shop, hoping to find something to cue her, and the unexpected squeaks out of her -

“My - my mom!”

“Flowers for your mom? I can do that!”

Yachi figures it’s too late to take it back, and… well, her mom has been working long hours. It’d be nice to have something to bring to her corporate dinner.

Hinata bustles around the shop, asking Yachi all sorts of questions while producing flowers from nowhere, as though ae owns the shop, which … ae probably does. (Yachi smacks her head.)

            Are you feeling better now? What’s your mom like? Does she like flowers?           

            Any favorite colors or scents? Is this for a special occasion? Hey… is everything okay?

            Ah, don’t mind, don’t mind! I really should keep myself to my self… but if a friend’s in need, I can’t not help!

            So, if you need someone to talk to, I’m here for that.

            You know, you’re pretty great, Yacchan. You’re really sweet, and you have a great smile!!

            You should try letting your mom know how you feel.

            If she knows how you feel, that’s a lot better than how things are right now, right?

By the end of Hinata’s whirling around the flower shop, plucking this and that from here and there, ae has produced an armload of flowers that need to be cut and ribboned up for Yachi’s mother.

By the time the sun has washed the blue sky with a golden glow, Yachi holds the bouquet in her hand and a new resolve in her mind. She can do this. (No, she can’t.) Yes, she _can_. Then, she’ll come back to the flower shop and tell the flower-keeper she did it, that she told her mom all the things she’s been wanting to say for years and years and always being too anxious to say them. Yachi had always felt safer in stagnancy, however uncomfortable it was. It was safe, but now she wants more.

When Yachi breathes in the last of the afternoon’s flowers, the flower shop’s life seems to leave with her retreating smile. The running sun lingers on her silhouette, weaving the gold in her hair around her body, light peeking through the seams of her loose sundress and skin, and Hinata _needs_ her to just -

“AH, wait, Yacchan!!” Hinata runs to the far end of the store.

When ae returns, ae’s short of breath, and there’s fire blooming in aer hand.

“For you,” Hinata stammers, a nervously wide grin on aer face. “Because, I - I, ah, thought they’re like your smile. Not that you smile flowers you know, but just beautifully. Beautiflowerfully smile. And happy birthday!!”

Yachi stutters her thanks and her _are you sure_? The flowers are beautiful, not even really properly wrapped up like the ones for her mother, but they’re beautiful with an honest light to them, and Yachi’s throat closes. (Allergies!! And she left her epipen at home today! Wait - no, nope, she’s okay. False alarm.) Eyes teary, she looks back up at Hinata and smiles, waving at aer.

She walks right into the door, stuttering and stammering and trying to collect herself while apologizing and edging out of the way and still smiling, and Hinata waves back, really hoping that things work out with Yacchan’s mom. Ae hopes that she has a good birthday; that she likes the flowers; that the flowers help the strained relationship between mother and daughter; and even more that she’ll come back to aer flower shop.

✿

Five blocks away, Yachi presses her face to the bouquet and smiles, thinking of the flower-keeper with aer hair as bright as her flowers.

**Author's Note:**

> hello !! i'm back at it again, posting fics written in earlier years. this one was a fill for a SASO 2K15 prompt for hinata and yachi: “A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot live without love.” ― Friedrich Max Müller. so, flower shop au !! thank you very much for reading !!


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